


Instantiation

by liathach (tselina)



Series: Sequence [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Timeline, Gen, Origin Story, Team as Family, Trans Female Character, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 06:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11007606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tselina/pseuds/liathach
Summary: Instantationis a term that refers to the realization of something formerly abstract.A short story that details Lena Oxton and Winston's first meeting in the earlier days of Overwatch. Please read all notes for disclaimers.





	Instantiation

**Author's Note:**

> A little origin story for Lena & Winston, in the Sequence universe. I have both of them showing up very young, contrary to Lena’s legit canon, but that’s what fanfic is for, right?
> 
> Aura abilities are mentioned -- basically, they’re how Ultimates work in Sequence, because I have to figure out some pseudo-science for them! -- and not fully explained, since they’re common parlance in the future. Also, I plan to do a full story on Lena’s past! (To give you a hint -- F1-GN is an allusion to the name “Fagin”.)
> 
> Sequence’s Lena is a trans girl, in a time where being trans is generally normalized, so her father’s treatment of her is actually considered backwards and strange. Because the future should be better for all of us, dammit.
> 
>  **Warnings :** Mention of child emotional abuse and deadnaming.  
>  **Pairings: ** Mention of Jack & Gabriel being married.

The room smells like ripe berries and grass. It's humid, and Lena’s new shirt clings to her skin. There are vines dangling from the ceiling, some real and some made of rope, criss-crossing above her head. The deep carpet is brown, like dirt.

In the center of the jungle is a young gorilla. He is sat upright, knuckles on the ground before him. His fur is so black it's nearly blue. He has long fur on his head that looks like hers, short and stuck up like a mohawk. He wears a brace on his back and chest, a t-shirt, and he's got a small silver crown right in the center of his forehead that probably, most likely doesn't come off. Even at a distance she knows he’s about her height, even bent over. Someone said he’s only a couple years older. Lena thinks he’ll be twice her size, soon enough.

"Hi," she says. The door swishes shut behind her. She sets down her pack.

The gorilla gives her a human smile.

"Hi," the gorilla says back.

For a moment, it's like it’s normal. Then Lena realizes that the gorilla _spoke_ to her, like a person. A _human_ person. Not sign language, or a voice box. It makes her feel a little strange, and wobbly at the knees.

"Um," she says, "I’m your roommate.”

"Oh," says the gorilla, galloping towards her. She fights not to step back. His voice is happy. "I know already. I've made a nest for you."

There's a dip in the room she didn’t see when she came in. The carpet there very dense, and smells like strawberry shampoo. In the thick of the floor there are two small piles of blankets and pillows, punched slightly to make a dent in the center. Hers is smaller, all orange and yellow and little hints of blue.

"I hear you sleep curled up," the gorilla continues. "So this will be excellent for you. In the end you may want a bed, but --"

"Um, thanks," Lena says. She's still a little wary, considering the gorilla, and the jungle, and being away from the adults now. 

"I'm Lena Oxton." She does smile, now. Giving her _real_ name is still new and very exciting. 

"Yes, I heard, it's nice to meet you." The gorilla takes his glasses from his shirt and puts them on his nose. Like it's part of his introduction. "I'm Winston. Uh, just Winston."

They shake hands, like two humans would. His palm is massive compared to hers. Lena wonders how he’s learned to speak, but she’ll ask later. Right now, she needs to make her nest her own.

She’s not got much to unpack. She didn’t have much from F1-GN’s foster home that she wanted to keep. But she did have a few things: her grandmother’s ring, some neon headbands, some colorful plastic bangles. She finds a hook on the wall to put the ring on, then she spreads all the other things around. Now it looks like a fancy royal divan, instead of a messy pile of fabric. 

“I hope you like it,” he says, nervous. He seems very nervous, all the time.

Messy or not, it was very nice of Winston to make it for her. “Thanks,” she says. “It’s nice. But um, I need a place to put my clothes. Do you have one?”

Winston blinks. He doesn’t have to wear clothes, maybe just his armor, so he wouldn’t have anything. He steps into action right away, though.

“Oh, oh, right.” He gallops over to one of the desks, mounted on the wall. He drags over a long wooden chest like it’s light as paper. It probably weighs two of Lena, maybe more. “Here you go,” he says.

It's very pretty. The carvings are of small birds, finches and sparrows and starlings. It smells new, like it'd been worked on just yesterday. She wouldn't be surprised if that’s true. 

She opens the trunk with a _click_ , then notices her hands are shaking very fast. She sits down right away and shuts her eyes tight so the jitter won’t take her too far away. Winston makes a scared huff when she does.

It tickles up her spine. Then it gets stronger, painful. She hears her own voice, repeating things: _um, I need a place to put_ , then _I'm Lena_ , then, _I dunno where I'm s'posed to go, Commander Morrison, please can you show me?_ and finally, 'round again, finishing her first sentence, _my clothes._

Winston stares at her when she’s back. His big jaw is open and his teeth show. He’s awed, and afraid. That makes her feel terrible.

"You went transparent for a moment," he says, wide-eyed.

"S'nothing," she replies, hunching up quick. "It's, um, my Aura condition."

“That’s a really impressive ability,” he says. 

Her cheeks burn. She thinks of all the things she had to do with it for F1-GN and her Father, because of her jitter. She thinks about all the people she’s hurt with it. And how scary it is, to go back in time, and not know if she’ll return to the present when she does.

“I don’t like it,” she says, low.

Winston’s shoulders hunch; he scratches his stomach. “Oh, sorry. I mean -- it’s very unique.”

That’s a little better. She doesn’t want to make him feel bad. She adds, “The scientists don’t know what to do with it yet.”

Winston pushes his glasses up his nose. “Oh, oh. Um, I’m very good with machines.”

“That’s quite nice?” 

Winston sees she’s confused. “What I mean is, I could make you something to help.”

“Oh,” she says. “That’d be quite nice, too. But I don’t want to trouble you.”

“It’s not trouble,” Winston says. “I’ll be happy to do it.”

“Cheers,” she says, still awkward at all the generosity. 

“Cheers?”

“It’s like thanks,” she says.

“Oh, cheers. I like it. Cheers for teaching me something new!” Winston leans forward, serious. “You know, I hear you’re very smart.”

Lena frowns. Winston realises he’s been rude, and walks it back. “Oh, um, sorry! But I mean, most ten-year-olds don’t talk like you. I’m fourteen, and you talk like me.”

Lena keeps frowning. “Most gorillas don’t talk at _all._ ”

“I’m from the Moon,” he says, like that explains it.

“That’s quite nice,” she says. They’re quiet, and she doesn’t like it, so she says, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say. I’m worried I’ll say something wrong.” And they’ll take me away, or make me go home.

“You don’t have to worry,” Winston says. He’s very, very nervous now, and walks back and forth on his knuckles. “I’m sorry. I don’t have a lot of friends my age, anymore.”

“Did you have human friends, or gorilla friends?”

Winston looks down. Now he’s ashamed.

“I had both kinds of friends,” he says. “And a dad, too.”

Lena doesn’t much like talking about fathers at all, but Winston seems sad enough to make the meaning clear: his father isn’t sitting around in his estates being terrible, like hers. Winston’s father is dead. 

“Was he a big gorilla?”

Winston takes his glasses off and looks at them. Then he says quietly, “He was a man.”

“Oh,” Lena says. It puzzles her, the literal meaning of it, but she feels silly thinking a human man was actually Winston’s father. “I’m very sorry.”

“It’s been a few years,” he says. “I was eleven. Just like you -- oh, no, you’re ten. See, you act older! I forgot.”

Lena smiles again. It’s easier, now, because she’s getting to know Winston faster than the other people here. It’s obvious he’s talking like he does is just him being friendly. It’s not his fault he doesn’t know how to talk to human kids his age. She’s new to Overwatch, and he’s probably heard all about her already --

\-- and that thought makes her feel suddenly awful. _He’s heard about her._ That means he’s heard about F1-GN, and his Underworld orphanage. And maybe, even though Winston is older, and bigger, and stronger, he’s afraid of her.

Tears well in her eyes. She can’t stop them when they form, and they spill down her cheeks. She wants to jitter back to not thinking that Winston’s scared of her, but that’s not how the jitter works, she can’t control it. And she remembers everything that happens, even if she goes back in time.

“Please don’t worry,” she blurts out, through her tears, “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m really not. I promise.”

She remembers every awful thing F1-GN made her do. All the stealing, and hurting humans and other Omnics. And he’d _always_ said she was very smart for her age, just like Winston had, that she was exceptional. And F1-GN always called her _Lena_ , too, not Leonard, the name Father gave her. So she’d liked him right away, because he was nothing like her actual father. But he’d been using her, and the other kids, Omnic and human, to do whatever he wanted, and that’s why Overwatch had come for F1-GN, and that’s how they found Lena.

Overwatch is so nice to her. They keep her safe, they say they won’t send her back to her parents. They don’t call her Leonard, either. But F1-GN did all those things, and she’d stayed with him. She can’t bear to think of them as being like him. 

Winston stares at her while she fights herself, while she cries. 

“Worry?” he asks. “I’m not worried! I just want you to feel at home!”

He’s so honest, it’s hard to _not_ believe him. He is pretty young, like her. Even if he’s smart -- and he seems rather smart -- he’s still a kid. And an orphan, like her. Even though her parents aren’t dead, even though she’d thought forever that F1-GN was like her new father, she’s an orphan.

She lets herself cry. It feels terrible and reliving all at once. There’s so much built up inside her, fit to bursting out, and she lets it all go.

“I don’t know what to do,” she sobs, “they say they want to help me! But I don’t know! Father told me to do awful things, and so did F1-GN, and I did them because I wanted them to like me. What if they’re the same? What if they just want me because I jitter, and they ask me to do awful things, too?”

Winston is quiet as she cries, and when she’s done, he hugs her. He pets her hair, like he’s grooming her. Like a real gorilla would, not just one that can talk.

“I was scared, too,” he admits, as she calms down. “All the humans were nice to me, on the Moon. Until all the gorillas started the rebellion. Then I was treated just like them. And when I got away, I hid what happened on the Moon, because I thought Overwatch would turn me away, too. I hid that I could talk, too, because I was scared they’d send me back to the scientists.”

“But they didn’t?”

Winston’s eyes are very serious, behind his glasses. They’re a person’s glasses, because gorillas, even ones that can talk, probably don’t need to wear them. “No. They didn’t. In fact, they fought to keep me. I’m the only specimen left, people said. I’m valuable. And Gabriel and Jack stepped in, and Ana and Wilhelm threw all their weight around, and they got to keep me.

“And they don’t expect me to do anything. Except --” Winston pauses. “ -- except be a kid. That’s what Jack said he wanted me to do.”

“Oh,” Lena said. “That’s what he said to me, too.”

“He told me it happened to him,” Winston says. “That his dad chased him out, and he was picked up by some other people -- by Omnics! Did he tell you that?”

Lena’s eyebrows raise high. “He -- he didn’t.”

“It’s true. You should have him tell you,” Winston says, eager. “It sounds so great. They let him help run their farm, and everything. He can also talk to plants! That’s his Aura ability. Isn’t that neat?”

Winston keeps talking. He tells her all about the adults. It’s a flood of information, so she inhales, and works to process it. She might not be able to jitter with her full body, but she can with her mind. It’s why Winston said that he’d heard she was smart. She is. She retains everything. That’s why people wanted to use her.

Now, listening hard, Lena learns about how Ana doesn’t have an Aura ability, she’s a Null (so that means she isn’t affected by anything around them), and Ana has a daughter named Fareeha (who’s older than Winston but not by much, and she’s away at school so that’s why she’s not here). There’s Wilhelm (Reinhardt is his surname, sometimes it happens in Germany) and Torbjorn (who has a son named Baldur, who’s older but mentally their age), and both of them use gravity and fire. Gabriel (who’s Jack’s husband) has perfect hand-eye coordination, and something about a shadow step -- “temporal disassociation, like you, you should ask him to help” -- and then about Athena (who is an AI, well, she’s an Omnic, but she’s very good, and she’ll love you, too), and the others that aren’t kids but they’re not as old as the adults, (there’s Jesse, he’s Gabriel’s second, and Angela, she works with Ana, and Genji, he’s new and recovering too, and…)

Her back to her new wooden chest, Lena wraps her arms around her knees and rocks a little, and her face hurts from smiling. Winston’s so excited to share information about his family, it’s rubbed off on her. It feels good, to hear everything: she used to listen to people to use their words against them, or to eavesdrop and find out secrets that people wanted locked up instead. This is different. Someone _wants_ to share. 

Winston sneezes. It breaks his train of thought, and he looks embarrassed as he breathes in a few heavy breaths, something he’s half forgotten to do. 

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I just -- I get carried away.”

“I followed you, no worries,” she says, a little woozy from stopping the jitter inside her head. “It’s all right. I liked hearing about it.”

“I uh -- I’m hungry, now,” Winston says.He cleans his glasses on his shirt. It has an Overwatch symbol on it, like hers, and it means they match. And Lena finds she likes that very much, to match -- to belong, and to a place that is turning out to be like nowhere she’s lived before.

“I am too,” she says. “I use a lot of energy.”

“I bet you have a _very_ high metabolism,” Winston says.

“Yes, Doctor Amari said that, too.”

“I have one too,” Winston says, and smiles, lips turned up. That’s a gorilla smile, Lena thinks. “So I eat a lot. I can get us a snack.”

“I’d quite like that,” Lena says. She _is_ hungry -- two jitters are a lot to take, under an hour. “What do you have?”

“Um, mostly vegetables,” Winston says, then, in a secretive voice, “but I also stole some peanut butter from the kitchens. Don’t tell anyone.”

 _That_ makes her happy. Even though it’s not a very big secret, that means Winston trusts her. It feels good. It feels like healing.

“I won’t,” she says. Winston hoots -- “Cheers!” -- and grabs one of the rope vines far about them, then climbs across the room to another place, hidden behind hanging nets and low light. Lena puts her clothes away, then sits in her nest.

 _You should get a chance to have a childhood,_ Commander Morrison -- Jack -- had said to her, when she’d come to the Overwatch compound. _Be a girl, like you should be. Not someone’s pawn in a chess game. Not someone’s science experiment. Not growing up too fast. Just be a kid._

Lena, sitting with her new friend, sharing celery and peanut butter and bottled water, now surrounded by colors and good people, thinks she’s off to a very good start.


End file.
